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At least six black former Tesla employees have told The New York Times that they suffered from racial harassment while working at the company. Three racial discrimination lawsuits have been filed against Tesla since early last year.

One man, DeWitt Lambert, shared a video in which an unidentified man walks around Tesla's factory floor and—addressing Lambert—threatens to "cut you up … so everybody can have a piece of you, n*****."

In a lengthy statement to Ars Technica, Tesla faulted the Times for extrapolating from "a very small number of claims" to paint Tesla in an unflattering light.

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"Tesla opposes all forms of discrimination, harassment, and unfair treatment, and we strive to provide a respectful work environment for all employees and do our best to prevent bad conduct," a Tesla spokeswoman said. "Tesla is aware of only two of these six individuals making a formal complaint while employed at the factory—both of which were investigated by the company and resulted in disciplinary action."

Lambert was offered a $100,000 settlement in March 2017—but Tesla's general counsel said the settlement was available "only if we are to resolve this matter before there is media attention." Lambert declined the settlement offer.

Further Reading

Another man, DeWayne Jones, said he "heard a supervisor say of black employees that 'there’s too many of them in there, they are not Tesla material,' and that he had been at a meeting where a supervisor, gesturing toward African-American workers, remarked that 'monkeys work outside.'"

Jones says he reported these incidents to Tesla management, but Tesla says it has no record of a formal complaint from Jones.

Many carmakers struggle with racism on the factory floor

"Common sense dictates that in a company the size of a small city, there will at times be claims of bad behavior," Tesla told us.

While Tesla appears to have a problem with workplace harassment, the company is also far from the only one in the auto industry to face these kinds of accusations. Similar reports have surfaced concerning many of Tesla's competitors recently:

On Thursday, the Detroit Free Pressreported on a similar situation at a GM factory in Ohio, where eight black workers are suing GM over racial slurs, racist drawings, and other forms of harassment they endured.

In June, Fiat Chrysler fired a worker who hung a noose inside a Toledo Jeep plant.

In 2014, a black worker sued Honda over what he described as an atmosphere of pervasive racism at an Indianapolis plant.

For now, Tesla told Ars it has extensive policies in place to deal with workplace racism.

"Each employee at Tesla is required to complete an anti-discrimination and sexual harassment training course within 30 days of being hired," Tesla wrote. "When a complaint is made, Tesla’s Employee Relations team investigates immediately and if warranted, takes disciplinary action."